From change resistance to change addiction

23.5.2012

Back in the good old days, people used to resent change, no matter how big or small. Corporate structures, web site updates, hair styles, we used to be suspicious. What will others think? What was wrong with the old? How is this going to impact me? And this is only natural, it’s hard coded into our genetics, you could even argue that we’ve prospered so because of our reluctance to change things that work. The village old timer turning down every suggestion on how to improve crop harvesting is the final frontier of cynical wisdom. He’s not necessarily opposing the changes, he’s just worried if we rush them and fail.

It’s interesting to notice that now people are becoming more and more change addicts when online. People are hoping for changes to spark up their digital lives, they need a steady flow of digital revolution to feed their appetite. This is most visible when new services or products are launched, and the crowd starts to reflect the possible changes.

Recently I stumbled upon a year old blog post about Google+. The writer pondered over the great improvements over the other social networks, and ended the post with a revolution prediction. What’s noteworthy is that there is nothing revolutionary in G+, not then not ever, more like small adjustments to what we’ve used to. Facebook has been a some kind of revolution, Twitter maybe, G+ not in a million years. Had it been though, boy we– I mean the geeks would’ve had a field day.

The danger that lies in seeing revolution and change everywhere, could be that false hope is clouding the judgement of the internet era business. When every little startup is seen as a potential Instagram ($1 billion, I mean wtf?), there’s bound to be a giant sized bubble somewhere out there waiting to go bust. I just hope that the huge expectations would be toned down a little, and some common sense would be brought into the picture. Hopefully the recent absence of new Apple revolutions and the awkward Facebook IPO will act as a coolant, and wake up the inner cynic in all of us.